On July 9th, I visited the Hong Kong Museum of Art and saw
the exhibition “Paris Chinese Painting: Legacy of the 20th Century
Chinese Masters”. This exhibition is one of the activities celebrating 50 years
of China-France ties. Artworks from the Musee Cernuschi, Asian Arts Museum of Paris,
the Hong Kong Museum of Art and several other major institutions in France are
included in this exhibition. It shows about a hundred pieces of artworks of multiple
forms by two generations of Chinese artists who have studied in Paris.
Among all those Chinese artists in this exhibition, Xu Beihong is one of
the most well known artists in China. He is famous for his horse painting.
Horse painting is an important genre of Chinese traditional painting. After
studying in Paris, Xu Beihong dedicated to the reform of Chinese painting. His
painting “Horse” is considered as traditional Chinese painting on the first
sight because it is drawn in ink on paper with techniques that are prevalent in
traditional paintings. However, the angle of representation of the horse and
the movement of the horse shows his understanding of space, moving and anatomy,
which come from his study of western paintings. Looking at the painting, one
can easily feel the beauty of the horse, which comes from its healthy skin,
muscle and hair. Also, the energy of the brush stokes and the shades of ink
make the horse energetic and living. His paintings of horse that combine the
best of both worlds are loved by Chinese authority and people considering horse
always represents the power of the nation in Chinese tradition. Also, he is
more respected as an artist than other artists of his time with similar
background considering realism was more accepted than romanticism due to the
political background and ideology of 20th century China. This
painting reminds me of another horse painting I saw in another exhibition of
the Hong Kong Museum of Art. “The Lone Horse” is painted in Qing Dynasty of
China. After seeing Xu Beihong’s “Horse”, this painting seems to be pretty
funny considering the anatomical structure of the horse is wrong and no motion
is expressed. The horse in this ancient painting looks lifeless and unreal.
After the first generation of Chinese artists in Paris like Xu Beihong
came back to China and started the reform in art education in China, their
students became the second generation of Chinese artists in Paris. While the
first generation met the prevalence of realism, romanticism and impressionism
in the west, the second-generation artists eye witted the birth of
abstractionism. The influence of both traditional Chinese painting and a wide
verity of western schools of painting can be seen in the paintings of those
second-generation artists.
Among those second-generation artists, Chu Teh-chun and Zao Wou-ki are
well known in the international realm of art. Their oil on canvas paintings is
the perfect combination of abstractionism, impressionism and Chinese landscape
painting. Zao Wou-ki’s oil on canvas painting “10.9.73” is a great example of
such kind of combination. The mountains and trees in this painting are
presented with techniques of impressionism. At the same time, the brush strokes
of the mountains are the legacy of traditional Chinese landscape painting.
Also, the water and sky are presented using the blank-leaving technique, which
is highly valued in Chinese ink on paper painting. Due to those combinations,
his paintings are praised as “landscape in the dream”.
Comparing to other second-generation artists, Wu Guanzhong is most
famous nationwide in China because he went back to China when People’s Republic
of China was established. Also, his artworks are more acceptable and
understandable to Chinese people. He dedicated to modernize Chinese painting
and localize oil on canvas painting. The techniques and themes of his oil on
canvas paintings are pretty similar to those of traditional landscape
paintings. However, he created his unique technique by adding spots of colors
to his paintings. His paintings always remind people of the carefree life of
areas south of the Yangtze River, which brings up the nostalgia of the whole
nation.
Jin Nong. The Lone Horse. 1761. Hanging scroll, ink on paper. Hong Kong
Museum of Art.
Xu Beihong. Horse. 1947. Ink on paper. Mesee Cernuschi, Museum of the
Asian Arts of Paris. http://www.cernuschi.paris.fr/en/collections/horse-1
Wu Guanzhong. Waterway of a Village. 1997. Oil on canvas. Hong Kong
Museum of Art.
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